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Rajnath reshuffles party portfolios

NEW DELHI: After a gap of many years an "outsider" to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi politics has been given charge of the party's political affairs in the national capital.

General secretary Thawarchand Gehlot will replace V.K. Malhotra as the party's `prabhari' in Delhi, while the former Union Minister, Yashwant Sinha, has been given charge of Karnataka.

In reshuffling the portfolios, it seems that president Rajnath Singh has tried to involve the maximum number of leaders in organisational work, giving them specific charge.

Some people who had been sidelined for years have been brought back.

For example, Jagdish Shettigar, known for his `swadeshi' views on economics, is once more convener of the economic cell, replacing P.N. Vijay.

The intellectual cell convener is Amitabh Sinha, while Nalin Kohli will head the media cell. S.K. Arora remains at the head of the external affairs cell.

Madhya Pradesh has been given to general secretary Ananth Kumar while the `prabhari' of Rajasthan will be Gopinath Munde, brother-in-law of the slain leader, Pramod Mahajan, the architect of the party's Assembly poll victory in the State in 2003. Gujarat has remained untouched with general secretary Om Mathur continuing as `prabhari.'

While charge of the party affairs in Tamil Nadu has been given to senior leader and spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, another spokesperson Prakash Javadekar has got charge of Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala, the new man in-charge of political affairs will be Balbir Punj.

The new `prabhari' for Punjab and Chandigarh will be Sahib Singh Verma, while in Haryana, Delhi leader Vijay Goyal will assume responsibility as `prabhari,' and in Jammu and Kashmir the party's senior leader Shanta Kumar has been given charge.